“Everyone alright?” I asked as I pushed my feet into the soft earth and stood on wobbly legs.
“Yes,” both Madalena and Lux replied, and I reached up to take off my helmet. The air smelled wet and alive with life. I didn’t hear any noises in the jungle though, but I imagined that was because we had probably scared away most of the creatures when we tore through the trees.
“How is she?” I asked Madalena as I tossed my helmet on the ground and walked over to Zea.
“None of her limbs are damaged,” the Prime Valkyrie answered as she removed the hacker’s helmet.
“Zea?” I asked as I ran my fingers over her face. She looked peaceful in her sleep, and I almost didn’t want to wake her.
“Zea?” I asked again as I lightly tapped her cheek, and the woman’s blue eye fluttered open.
“What? Huh? Waaaa?” She gasped and then looked into my face. “Am I in heaven?”
“Nope,” I chuckled. “We’re on the ground. About ten kilometers away from the missile launcher.
“We are on the ground? Really?” She tried to sit up, and I reached my hand to her back so I could help her.
“Yeah. We made it.” I patted her back, and she let out a thankful breath.
“Damn!” Zea laughed. “That was great! I don’t know why I was worried! It was super easy!”
“Yes,” Madalena agreed as a smile spread across her normally stoic face. “It was super easy.”
Chapter 15
“The missile launcher is ten kilometers to your northeast,” Kasta said as soon as we had pulled Zea to her feet.
“The jungle looks dense, but there is a bit of a depression line north of you that runs east and west. I can’t see through the trees, but I believe it is a stream. It might be quicker for you if you go through there.”
“We can use our thrusters,” Madalena said as she pointed to the north.
“After you,” I said as I reached out to steady Zea’s first few steps. After we walked for a minute, the hacker was moving better, and I let go of her arm so we could move faster.
“It’s pretty,” Zea said as she gestured to the trees over our head. “I’ve seen vids of jungles, but have never set foot in one.”
“Once we find my father, we can take the time to enjoy the scenery more.” Madalena pushed a branch out of the way, then gestured for Zea to walk under it. The Prime Valkyrie fell in step beside me and lifted her rifle from behind her back.
“Hear something?” I asked her as I let my hand rest on my shotgun’s grip.
“No, that is my worry,” she whispered.
“Yeah, I noticed that when we first crashed. I thought it was because we made a bunch of noise.” I turned to look over our shoulders, but I didn’t see anything stalking us. Then again, the jungle was dense.
“Hey Kasta and Paula, how far from this missile array is the estate?”
“Another six kilometers,” Kasta answered.
“Fuck. Going to be a bit of a haul.”
“As soon as the missiles are destroyed, he will know that we are coming.” Madalena frowned.
“Oh, I can handle that,” Zea announced with an unquestionable confidence. “I can set up the code so it relays up to Persephone. Kasta or Paula can just trigger the missiles when we are at your father’s doorstep. The other arrays will blow, Adam will rush through his door all Kitty Boy style, and Persephone will bomb the fuck out of the hangar. Triple threat!” The hacker let out a chuckle.
“That is a good plan,” Madalena said with a nod.
“I thought that was how you wanted me to do it?” She smirked. “Otherwise you are right; they would just know we are coming.”
“Yes,” Madalena nodded, and Zea turned around to walk after Lux.
“I am liking her more,” Madalena whispered to me. “She is more clever than I originally thought.”
“She’s an amazing woman,” I said. “I am glad to have all of you in my life.” The Prime Valkyrie nodded at my words, but then Lux clicked her tongue against her teeth, and we turned our attention forward.
There was the sound of rushing water up ahead, and we moved through the outer fringe of the forest before we came to the edge of a ravine. Some ten meters below us was a rushing creek where turquoise water leapt over boulders, danced through narrow gullies, and spun around slender trees.
Lux positioned herself on the edge of the drop and panned her rifle around the open area below us for half a dozen seconds. Madalena and I also looked across the water with our weapons ready, but I didn’t see or hear anything besides the rushing water.
“Let us descend with my thrusters,” Madalena said as she pushed her rifle back over her shoulder. Then she stood behind me, wrapped her arms around my chest, and commanded her purple thrusters to lift us off the ground. Lux gripped Zea in the same manner as they followed our lead.
We swooped down into the ravine and zoomed ahead at a speed a little faster than running. I held my shotgun in my hands and scanned the terrain ahead of us, but I didn’t see anything. There weren’t even any animals, and I would have expected to see some sort of life on this planet.
“Why aren’t there any animals?” Zea read my mind after we had flown for about ten minutes.
“It is possible that my father put a sonic limiter in the area,” Madalena said.
“That makes sense,” I said as I felt a bit of relief in my stomach.
“What is a sonic limiter?” Zea asked.
“It’s a high pitched whine that keeps animals with advanced hearing away,” I explained.
“Don’t you have good hearing? Can you hear it?” Zea asked.
“I don’t hear it now, but I might when I shift.”
“Hopefully it doesn’t fuck you up when you shift,” she said.
“You are almost to the missile launcher,” Kasta said through our transponders. “In three hundred meters, get out of the ravine and head north. You’ll have another two hundred meters of jungle to get through, and then there will be a clearing with the missile array and cannon.”
“Understood,” Madalena said, and she angled our flight to take us up to the crest of the ravine.
Lux and Zea landed behind us, and we pushed back into the thick jungle. This area was harder to walk through than the other side of the creek, and I wished that I had thought to bring a machete or one of my longer knives. We eventually made it to the clearing, and I saw the missile array sitting next to the massive cannon.
“We don’t see any hostiles,” Paula said after Lux, Madalena, and I spent a few minutes scanning the open field. The weapons were only fifty meters from us, but the waist-high grass continued past the array for as far as we could see like a green ocean. We would be easy to spot once we left the cover of the jungle; unless we crawled low in the grass.
“You ready, Zea?” I asked as I thought about potential enemies that might be hiding in the tall blades of grass.
“Yeah. Let’s do this.”
“Lux, take point,” Madalena ordered, and the other woman sprinted across the field to the missile array. I half expected the massive cannon to point down at her, or for a dozen armored guards to burst from a hidden location and shoot at her, but the armored woman made it to the missile array without issue, and she checked around the corners before she gave us the signal to follow her.
“Stay low,” I whispered to Zea, and we moved out from behind the cover of the jungle and ran toward the two weapons.
The missile launcher stood some ten meters tall and six meters wide. It had two sides that carried open warhead ports, and I counted twenty missiles total. The base of it was two-and-a-half meters tall, and I saw a small ladder leading up to a control door.
The cannon was more intimidating than the launcher. The barrel of the weapon was four meters long, and it sat on top of a gyro post I guessed was capable of swinging the business end around in any direction. It was probably used to take down low flying vehicles, and I was glad that we had been successful with our orbital skydive.
“I think I need to get inside there,” Zea said as she pointed to the ladder leading up the door.
“I will check it first,” Lux said. A moment later she activated her back thruster and sprung up to the top of the ladder. The door didn’t move when she pulled on the handle, but then she yanked harder, and the metal bent open with a screech. Then there was a horrific pop, and Lux flung the door behind her.
“That’s one way to do it,” Zea said as she moved to the base of the ladder.
Lux back flipped off the top as Zea climbed up, and then the armored woman moved back to her spot at the edge of the missile launcher.
“I’m going to have to wiggle in here,” Zea shouted down at us as she pulled her cable out of her belt pack and plugged it into her skull. “Give me a few minutes.”
“Alright,” I said as she squirmed into the small door. Her feet were still sticking out, and I saw them make slow circles in the air as she stretched her ankles.
“Uhhh, guys?” Paula’s voice came across our transponders.
“What?” I asked as my stomach clenched and the beast growled.
“A hovercraft just left the fortress. Six armored figures are on it, and they are heading your way.”
“The door must have triggered an alarm,” I said.
“I’m not even in the system yet. I can’t find a por-- ahh there it is! I’m jumping in now.” Zea’s legs fluttered as she tried to crawl deeper into the missile array’s tunnel, but they were still sticking out past her knee and would make a perfect target for the warriors heading in our direction.
“How long until they get here?” I asked as I ran to the opposite corner of the launcher from Lux.
“Minute and a half,” Kasta replied.
“Zea?” I asked.
“I’m going to need more than a minute and a half!”
“We will deal with them,” Madalena said as she lifted off the ground with a blast of her wings and settled on the top platform beneath the missile ports.
“These guys look like serious business, they have armor like yours,” Paula said.
“I know,” Madalena replied, and I looked up to see her ready her rifle. “They will be his elite warriors.”
“Zea, can you get your legs deeper in the tunnel?” I asked.
“I really can’t. This is a drone service tunnel.”
“You need to get out then. You can get back to it after we kill these fuckers.” The beast was thrashing against my skull so it could escape and kill. He hadn’t butchered anything in a few days, and the knowledge that our enemies were coming to kill my women was making him go insane.
“I can’t exit now. I’m in the system, and I’m using all my breaching software to confuse their security. If I leave, I’ll either break it, or I won’t be able to get in again.”
“We will kill them,” Madalena said. “Focus on the missile launcher.”
“That’s what I’m doing!” Zea shouted. “I need five more minutes!”
“I am shifting,” I growled as the monster in my soul growled, screeched, and screamed. The beast’s anger filled my chest and head as agony ripped through my spine. It wanted to tear these warriors to pieces and smell their blood on the air.
The shift hurt more than normal, and I gasped as the agony of my change tore through my muscles. I was still wearing my space suit, and I hit the release button on the controls to make the garment expand around my armor. I wanted to step out of it so I could move easier, but another punch of torment tore through my bones, and I couldn’t stay standing anymore.
Was the beast mad that I hadn’t shifted in the last couple of days? Changing into my tiger-man form always hurt, but this felt ten times worse, and my mind began to drift toward unconsciousness so I could escape the agony. Even the beast wailed with pain, and I remembered what I told Zea about the sonic limiter. The agony was cascading down from my skull, and it was causing my bones and muscles to tense.
The sound was like a million nails scratching metal, and I raised my hands to try and cover my tiger ears. Muffling them didn’t seem to help, and my head started to spin.
Then my stomach lurched, and I screamed as vomit erupted from my mouth and painted the grass at my feet.
“Adam?” Madalena gasped, and I knew she could feel my agony.
“My ears,” I gasped through the pain. I wanted to shift back into my human form. Fuck, even the monster that now shared my body wanted to get the fuck out of here, but as soon as I turned back into a human, I would have to sleep.
My friends needed me right now. These men would shoot Zea’s legs off if I didn’t cover her, and I needed to kill Madalena’s father before his reinforcements arrived.
“The pain--” Madalena gasped, but I had my eyes closed now and I couldn’t look up to see how much my own agony was affecting her.
The noise bounced off the inside of my skull like a thousand shards of glass, and I felt the monster in my soul beg me to shift back. It was an unusual change of our relationship, and I refused.
“You’re along for the ride, fucker,” I growled as I forced my furry body to stand. My equilibrium was shot, and I almost tumbled over when I stood.
But I did stand, and I was able to lift my shotgun.
As long as I could do those two things I’d keep fighting.
“They have almost reached you,” Paula warned.
“I have visual,” Madalena said from her position above us. Then her pulse rifle sang, and a stream of blue energy bullets flew across the grass field.
I should have been able to see the hovercraft, but my vision spun like a slow kaleidoscope when I looked in the direction Madalena fired, and I doubted I’d be able to hit anything that was more than fifty meters away.
A salvo of pulse rifle slammed into the missile array next to me, and I ducked back around the corner. Then I glanced up at Zea’s legs and saw a few scorch marks on the metal next to where her feet popped out of the small door.
Fuck.
“How many have you killed?” I growled as Madalena and Lux’s pulse rifles screeched. The only reason those fuckers hadn’t been able to shoot Zea’s legs off was because of the hail of bullet cover Lux and Madalena were sending their way, and I knew that the two Valkyries would eventually have to reload.
“They have an expandable barrier,” the Prime Valkyrie said calmly. “It will take us some time to burn through it.”
“We don’t have time!” I growled.
“Sniper!” Lux shouted, and I jumped up onto the ladder where Zea’s legs dangled without thinking.
The shot took me in the right shoulder, shattered the armor there, and spun me away from Zea’s legs. I tumbled off the ladder, and my back smacked into the grass beside the missile launcher. For half a moment, the agony convinced me that the bullet had tunneled through my chest and taken out both of my lungs, but a quick glance showed me that the armor on my shoulder managed to deflect the bullet.
“Sniper down,” Madalena called out as I looked at my armor. She could feel I wasn’t dead, so there was no need for her to ask if I was okay.
“Five remaining,” Lux updated.
“A pair of hovercraft are leaving the compound!” Paula shouted in our transponders. “Six on each!”
“Shit,” I growled as I rolled to my feet. We were killing too slow because I couldn’t help. I squinted up toward the pulse fire and saw the hovercraft, but my vision was too blurry and spinning too wildly.
I was next to useless. It would have been better if I hadn’t shifted.
I glanced up at Zea’s legs and the scorch marks on the metal. We wouldn’t be able to hold against another twelve warriors, and Zea would need at least four more minutes.
Despite the endless agony in my brain and body, I could see Zea’s legs and the door just fine. My vision seemed to have problems focusing on objects in the distance.
Then a Marine-esque plan came to me, and I looked down at my shotgun.
Shotguns worked better the closer I was
to the fuckers I wanted to kill, anyway.
“Give me cover fire!” I growled as I sprinted away from the missile array. I didn’t run quite straight at the distant hovercraft. Partially because my vision was still spinning and I couldn’t quite tell exactly where it was, but also because I didn’t want to charge straight at them. I was running at the two o’clock of their position while commanding my wobbly legs to sprint as fast as they could.
Streams of pulse fire flew around me. I couldn’t tell if the shots came from the men behind the hovercraft or Madalena, but nothing hit me.
My boot stepped on a soft patch of ground, and I twisted left to keep running without tripping. I felt drunk, nauseated, and my brain was on fire, but the idea of a bullet taking Zea’s legs out kept me going, and I twisted back to my right while I tried to locate the five fuckers shooting at us.
I’d somehow made it within a hundred meters of their barrier. The five men, or at least, I thought there were five, I was too fucked up to count, were focusing their fire on me, but I stumbled to my right, tripped on my boots, rolled on the grass, and then popped up in another run with my shotgun in my grip.
“One more eliminated,” Madalena said as I heard a man scream from behind their hovercraft. The sound actually helped me gain my bearings, and I aimed my shotgun toward the barrier as I ran at it.
The metal plate extended from the side of the hovercraft like a seashell growth. It stood about a meter and a half high, so I leapt over it easily and pointed my shotgun at the first man I could see.
I squeezed the trigger, and my armor piercing slug punched the life from the man’s chest hard enough for his ancestors to feel it.
A pulse bullet tore through my back and erupted from my stomach, but the pain didn’t really register through the agony in my head. I spun around, knocked away the man’s rifle with my shoulder before he could fill me with more holes, and pushed my shotgun into his stomach. My slug tore through him, the armored man behind him, and then took a third in the chest. It looked like the last man’s armor had actually stopped my round, but I put another slug into him while he tumbled back, and his blood sprayed across the grass in a sudden flood of crimson.
King Killer Page 24